THE HANUKKAH STORY

An adequate, unexceptional retelling: of the Jews' repression under Antiochus, of Mattathias' refusal to bow down to the statue of Zeus and his killing of another who complied, and of his son Judah the Maccabee's defeat of Antiochus' generals and reclamation of the temple in Jerusalem. Hirsh's presentation, ending with the miracle of the oil (but ""isn't the victory a miracle too?"") and illustrated with stiff, monotonous depictions of confrontations and battles, is geared to those who want a simpler, slighter--and blander--version than Greenfeld's Chanuka (1976).